Akram Khan’s ‘Giselle’ Coming to Chicago

Alina Cojocaru in Akram Khan’s “Giselle,” at the Palace Theater in Manchester, England, in 2016.

Laurent Liotardo

By ROSLYN SULCAS

February 12, 2018

Akram Khan’s much talked-about reworking of “Giselle,” created for English National Ballet in 2016, will come to the United States next year, the company’s first trip across the Atlantic in 30 years. The Harris Theater in Chicago will present English National Ballet in four performances of Mr. Khan’s work, Feb. 28 to March 2, 2019.

“Giselle” was commissioned by Tamara Rojo, the former Royal Ballet principal who became director of English National Ballet in 2012. It was seen as a gamble for both the company and for Mr. Khan. Known for his fusion of contemporary dance and Indian kathak, he had not previously created a full-length work for a ballet company. Although it is loosely based on the story of the famous 1841 classic, Mr. Khan updates the story to a world of migrant workers and powerful landlords.

The production, set to music by Vincenzo Lamagna, was an immediate success with both critics and the public, and recently returned for an equally applauded second run at Sadler’s Wells Theater in London.

Patricia Barretto, the president and chief executive of the Harris Theater, said that although she had not seen a live performance, she had been following the work’s success online. “I was enthralled by how stunning it was, with the melding of traditional kathak dance and ballet,” Ms. Barretto said in a telephone interview. “I felt we had to do it.”

Ms. Barretto said the costs of bringing the production were high. “When I put the numbers together, I almost fell off my chair,” she said. A trustee, Caryn Harris and her husband. King (a member of the Harris family for which the theater is named), agreed to provide a substantial proportion of the budget, enabling the Harris to bring around 95 members of English National Ballet — dancers, the artistic team and production staff — to Chicago.

The Harris will also present Miami City Ballet, Opera Atelier, Gauthier Dance and Teatro Regio Torino in “I vespri siciliani,” among other productions this season, and Ms. Barretto said it was not unusual for the theater to host large companies. “What is unusual is that this is less conventional artistically,” she said of Mr. Khan’s “Giselle.” “But that is the intent.”